Hello All!

As always, I’ve missed the boat, got off the wrong train, took the wrong taxi and have NOT blogged regularly. Sue me. (Actually, don’t sue me, I have no money)

My life… is actually relatively boring as of late. I work, do ghost hunts, write fantasy, sci-fi or horror books, write out my essays for uni where I’m studying Forensic Psychology, eat chocolate, drink tea, sleep and repeat. HOWEVER, my normal work, owning a business, takes me through multiple conversations with the lovely members of the public. From home in the UK, to Australia! G’ddaymate!

Here come the anecdotes! No joke, a few months ago, I was contacted by a lady saying that her daughter would like a massage as her back is bad and she has a surf competition to attend. I’m like, surf? Not anywhere near where I live… I said Okay… thinking they are staying in the area before heading to the surf competition, right? I mean, on my website, it shows exactly where I work around: Torbay and parts of Teignbridge. Anyway, the lady told me where she was staying, and that’s when I got confused. Now, I have lived in Torbay all my life (okay, well apart from the years I lived in Wales for uni and that year and a half I lived in South Korea- but you get the gist). Never had I heard of this particular place. Let’s call it Rose Bay (it wasn’t, but I can’t remember what the actual name was). So, I Googled Rose Bay near me…nowt. I extended my search: Rose Bay Cornwall, nowt. And then… the penny dropped. I then searched Rose Bay for THE WORLD, and up popped Australia!

Now, I’m not dumb- (think of me like Emperor Claudius-appears stupid but isn’t- if you don’t know about him, Google him) and I do know there is a Torquay in Australia, and there is also a Torbay in Australia. However, yet again, I fear people have been tricked into thinking that, being Mobile, I am mobile all over. It’s not just Australia. Just this year alone, I’ve had two people from different parts of Scotland, someone from Ireland, one person from London and another from Nottingham- all asking if I can go and massage them. As I am a nice person, I have offered to all of them to help them find a massage therapist local to them, and I have contacted the local spas or salons to see their availability and pricing. Only one person thanked me. Ahh… the effort to thank someone. It truly seems to be difficult.

But the reason for this post is a little bit… well… I’ll leave it to you to decide whether it’s rude or smart thinking.

I understand today’s climate is abysmal. Everything is expensive; everything is going up. Not just fuel (which, of course, being mobile, it’s a constant struggle to find the cheapest petrol pump!), but also food. I also understand my area where I live. It’s another constant struggle to find a job, to pay the bills, to try and find a small moment of “me” time. It’s also an area where there are more retired people than there are young people. Meaning, the elderly (regardless of what the media says) haven’t got a lot of savings and aren’t that well off. So, taking all of that into consideration, I am relatively cheap… or I’d like to say affordable. My business understanding is that if I keep it affordable, people can have another massage regularly, which helps their well-being. A lot of my new clients say the same thing. “Spas are too expensive and too much of a faff. You go in there, the therapist spends ten minutes talking and going through the consultation form or asking what oil you’d like for your massage, they do a 45-minute treatment out of what should be an hour-long massage, and then they leave early, giving you five minutes to change. All totalling one hour, with only having a 45-minute massage, and you’ve broken your bank by spending £130 (spas on average). Then you have two hours for the spa.” Now, coming from a spa, before I went mobile, I understand the costs of maintaining a spa. It is expensive. And yes, that £130 doesn’t go to the therapist- maybe £12 (if they are lucky) goes to the therapist for an hour, and the rest goes to the spa or hotel for towels, heating, electricity, blah, blah, blah.

So, with all this going on, I thought it would be a good idea to be a mobile massage therapist. To cut out the expensive spa treatments. You pay for an hour, you get an hour. I have no hot mitts or hot towels, damn, even my oil is cold, as there’s no oil heater for the car! (If someone wants to invent that, I’ll throw what little money I have at you!) My massage business is for those who can’t get out to a spa because they are in a wheelchair, too ill or infirm, or simply find spas too expensive and a faff.

And now, the reason for this post. I’ve been in this business since 2019. And I will say I am probably one of the WORST businesswomen ever. My business knowledge is limited. I didn’t do business studies at school, and I’ve technically learned about my job on the job. The reason why I think I’m the worst is because of my costs. I choose to believe I am not worth what other therapists who have been in the business longer are paid. I came into this game late. So, with every CPD course I do, I feel better and vindicated about having my prices at what they are. I have never, nor will I ever, raise my prices to what people think I should charge, which is roughly £70 per hour. Nope. Not happening. With my business, there are no hidden fees, petrol charges, or mileage charges. I even pay for my towels, cleaning and whatnot. So when I get new clients, they know they get the full hour with no additional charges. Simple. HOWEVER, this is where it gets… a bit… off. My ethos is to help people who need it. Being a former carer, I can’t help but help people. I will go to Care Homes, residential homes, Assisted Living complexes and Nursing Homes. I also go to people’s houses, and though I used to go to hotels for the odd tourist when I first started out, I just don’t go into them anymore. Why? You ask. Two reasons. First, some hotels may not cover a business like mine. I have public liability, but as part of their Policy and Procedures, I may not be allowed. Second, the rooms are so freaking small and getting my large-ass couch in a hotel room doesn’t help my back. Yet, over time, I was getting more calls for hotels, especially those with spas.

And here is my massive crux. I have been asked to go into hotels, very affluent hotels with amazing spas, to give massages to them in their hotel rooms. Firstly, get that idea out of your head. It’s nothing kinky. For these tourists who travel to Torbay, they see a gorgeous hotel (with some offers, perhaps), and then they want to have a massage, and they see the price of the spas and think, “Sh*t, I’d have to re-mortgage my house to have a massage!” Okay, that’s maybe an exaggeration, but as I said, it is in the vicinity of £130 for an hour. And in this day and age, that’s very expensive. So, they have a Google and bingo, ‘Massage with Care’ pops up. Oh, and they are mobile; oh, even better. They can travel to the hotel. They then delve deeper and will go onto my website and see my prices and double-bingo, cheaper than the spa!

While I wholly appreciate that I am cheaper (affordable) than a spa, please understand that, from the spa’s point of view, it is impolite to ask a massage business to come to their hotel, which already has massage rooms with amazing therapists, and ask the cheaper business instead. I’m sorry, I get that you want to find somewhere cheaper- but please do not ask me. I find it so disrespectful to the hotels. I used to work in them, and I’d be so affronted if someone from the hotel I worked at contacted a mobile therapist to the hotel- bypassing the spa because it’s more affordable to have them than the hotel.

It’s like going into a bar, asking for a drink, then taking the drink from the bar and going into the restaurant next door to drink it, and saying this drink was cheaper than yours. I’m so sorry, but I find it unethical.

So what do I do when people ask me to go out to them in the hotel they are staying at? Well, I do what any self-respecting business does- I Google nearby spas/salons close to them, ring the spas/salons up, find out their availability and prices and email it back to the person requesting me. It’s still cheaper going to the spa at the hotel, and by going to other spas/salons you are helping local businesses. Still think I’m a bad businesswoman? Probably. I mean, I’ve contacted other businesses, leaving me without money because I stick to my principles. While others are more cutthroat and wouldn’t give a damn about a small one-person business like me- I tend to believe in the goodness of altruism.

So, there you have it. Do you think it’s rude? Or clever trying to save money? I see both sides. But from a business point of view, I find it immoral and unethical. Sorry guys. Don’t hate me.